Vista Upgrade Clean Install Workaround

Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD and start the setup program.

When prompted to enter your product key, DO NOT enter it. Click "Next" and proceed with setup. This will install Windows Vista as a 30-day trial.

When prompted, select the edition of Vista which you have purchased and continue with setup.

Once setup has been completed and you have been brought to the desktop for the first time, run the install program from within Windows Vista.

This time, type in your product key when prompted.

When asked whether to perform an Upgrade or Custom (advanced) install, choose Custom (advanced) to perform a clean install of Vista. Yes, this means that you will have to install Vista for a second time.

Once setup has completed for the second time, you should be able to activate Windows Vista normally. You can also delete the Windows.old directory which contains information from the first Vista install.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932

 

I think it's important to say that you still need to own an earlyer version of windows in order to do this.

I don't quite see the point since you have to re-install Vista anyway. So install XP first and then Vista or Vista then Vista... Wonder which one is faster.

 

Agreed - its does tackle the issue of "its not a clean install since you are upgrading it from xp" though - I wonder if there is any difference in performance by doing Vista to Vista compared to XP to Vista -

 

what is the diffrence between

Windows Vista BusinessN and Windows Vista business.??? (on the the JPG image on the site posted)

 

You're pretty wrong on this.
It's not only an obvious performance issue - there's a difference between overwriting a file with the exactly the same one again and installing a nother one then moving whole user profiles somewhere else but linking back and forth everything to make sure all the old stuff will work - but also doing it your way you'll end up with chaotic profiles/documents linked back and forth, not to mention lot of botched appplication which may or may not work properly.

Trust me, I'm using Vista Ultimate for months now - corporate license - and it's horribly crappy and slow on the same 3800+ X2 1GB machine that ran XP Pro SP2 perfectly well, in a very snappy manner. I bet Vista isn't this crazy slow but I deliberately used the upgrade function instead of clean install - it's a full license - to see how does it work out.

Well so far my experience can be very thoroughly described with one word: miserable.

 

@jpagel - Great advise. It is a shame that people have to install Vista *twice* to get a real clean install.

 

(Note: This Info pertains only to Vista Upgrade DVD)


Upgrade = ( in-place) or ( clean install)

IMO (Vista-Vista) will be faster than (XP-Vista)

XP takes 2 hours to install
Vista takes 20 mins to install

Upgrade ( in-place) = retains your applications, files, settings
Upgrade ( clean install) = destroys applications & settings but retains files in a folder called windows.old

Better still, use AcronisTrueImage or Norton Ghost to create OS image.

1. Install XP, Upgrade to Vista then create OS Image for later reinstallations
2. Install Vista, Upgrade to Vista then create OS Image for later reinstallations
3. Install XP, create OS Image for later reinstallations then Upgrade to Vista

You might ask why do we need number 3. Well Vista is pretty much a new OS.
In the event of a malware outbreak (as we speak hackers are trying to break Vista)
and no Internet Security is able to prevent outbreak disaster. We might want to temporarily
revert back to XP till solved. So if you dont want to wait 2 hours to reinstall XP, an Image will do.

 

I meant faster in terms of time it takes to install instead of faster in terms of responsiveness of the system.

If your XP installation is brand new with nothing else installed, then doing a clean install of Vista on top should be the same as doing a clean install of Vista on top of Vista.

Why? because it's a CLEAN install. So all your files are put to the side and nothing of the old installation is touched (unless i'm horribly wrong).

If you do an upgrade installation on top of XP, then yeah, it's going to be a mess for sure. Since it won't be a clean install, it's going to rely on some of the XP files and profiles (etc) and it's bound to blow up at some point.

Just spend a few more $$ and get a regular version. Lots less headackes.
actually stick to XP for now. Wait a few months to a year then buy Vista. It will be cheaper and more stable/better performance.

 

I actually did a XP > Vista Ultimate in-place upgrade. I had to do this because I had a couple of apps that had a one-time-use activation key, and would've had to buy a new 'key' to re-install them.

Before upgrading, I ran the Upgrade Advisor and uninstalled any apps that were flagged as being incompatible. After running the upgrade, I would hardly call my install a 'mess', and performance-wise, I think it's almost as fast as XP. Some apps (ie, Outlook) even feel a little snappier. After two months, I haven't found anything in my profile that has 'blown up'.

As far as doing a 'clean' install, I wouldn't consider any install on top of any other OS 'clean'. A clean install to me means you boot off your install disk, then delete and re-create your OS partition during the setup process so you're installing the new OS to a 'clean' partition.

Just my $.02.

 

xp has never taken me 2 hours to install.... I had xp (32bit) installed 15 mins
I was asking will the responsiveness of the system run better from a upgrade from xp to vista or vista to vista - it was a ponder -

and in my opinoin - lmychajluk is not "wrong" - his thinking of clean install is - Repartion, reformat and full install fresh - exacly what he said - nothing "wrong" about thinking that because you put a fresh load of XP and "upgrade" to vista over it is tech. not a "clean" install compared to just setting up vista on a fresh formatted partition with no previous OS -
Just his way of interpretting a "clean" install of a OS

 

Does this mean i can just buy a upgrade version of Vista, but use this workaround to get Vista full without having XP?

COOL, i m getting Ultimate later... if microsoft din jammed this bug...

 

Wait...isn't the upgrade version of Vista the same as the XP upgrade? When I bought an XP upgrade I put the cd in the drive, started up the system, got the blue DOS-style install thing where you have to hit F8 to accept the EULA, and then I got the options for Repair OR Install/Overwrite OR Format (quick) OR Format (full, slow). Are those options really gone? I would always just do the full/slow format and that was a clean install using an upgrade CD. It would wipe out the older version of windows and everything on the HDD, then put XP on it. Doesn't Vista have the same option?

Note: I powered up my comp and told it to boot from the CD drive. That's where I got the options for a full format. I could even alter the partitions. After formatting, windows would copy files, restart, and then do the more decorated modern-looking install system where it would ask for some preferances and stuff. Is this truely gone?

 

The way I did this was to choose custom install and then when it asks you where to put vista choose the options on that page and there is a reformat option for the partition you are putting it on - that way you do not have to dump the windoes.old file and are truely getting a clean install.

 

Vista N is for Europe and some other countries where Microsoft is fighting legal battles. Therefore it contains no Windows Media Player, Windows Movie Maker, Media Center and other Windows Media related technologies.

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_02.asp

c/o Paul Thurrott, Windows Junkie

 

On a 250GB SATAII HD, 1gb ddr2 ocz, amd 3800+ x2 - I have installed windows in just under 20 mins - all you have to do is get online activate windows and then pop in the vista cd/dvd, whats the point in doing updates or any other install - there is everything in around 25 mins + the vista install, then updates -

 

do i have the option to repartion doing the clean install from the upgrade disk??????????????

 

bump will i get the option of partitioning by doing the custom upgrade (clean install) from win XP

 

2hrs to install XP ? on what ? Pentium 1 with 64MB RAM ??.

Any system capable of installing Vista in 20 minutes should be able to install XP in at least 30 minutes.

 

You guys lost me. I know you can't just stick in your original windows XP like before. But what i want to know is if I install vista upgrade (not activated) then install vista from windows again, will I...
1) get the prompt to do a complete format so all I have is Vista?
2) If not, and I get that XXX.old directory, all I need to do is remove (read elete) that ONE directory and I'm consider 100% vista?
3) K... so at what point do I need to prove that I have windows XP before? Or did we somehow bypass that with teh vista-vista upgrade?

Also, does anybody know how many computers can I install office 2007 professional? Just one? Or can it be used like the student edition where I can put it on 3 computers?

 

this is confusing

 

I second that.

 

CONFUSED!
README!



A. If you buy a Vista Upgrade DVD there are 3 ways of installing it.

1. Firstly install XP (or if u have OS preinstalled), pop in the DVD and follow the setup wizard. Select in-place | retains your applications, settings and files |

2. Firstly install XP (or if u have OS preinstalled), pop in the DVD and follow the setup wizard. Select custom | this option allows you to do a clean install but retains your files and destroys applications & settings. You are still adviced to backup your files. It creates a folder called Windows.old that contains the files. If you have more than one partition on your disk, it allows you to choose which partition to install Vista on & the data on the other partitions a left intact as it is. You will be able to gain access to data on the other partitions from within Vista. Beware you cant reformat, delete or create partitions. You will have to boot from DVD for those advanced options |

3. Pop in the Vista Upgrade DVD. Turnoff your computer. Boot your computer from the DVD and follow setup wizard. Skip input of your product key or else you wont be able to install Vista. The option to upgrade in-place is disabled. Choose custom | Now you can reformat or delete partitions. Be careful, you cant recreate deleted partitions in the sense that if you have A and B, if you delete both, you cant recreate A and B separately again. Instead u can only create C which takes up the space of both A and B. In other words, you cant specify the size of a partition u wish to create. You will have to purchase special software for that. Now finish setup |
After Vista installs, you will have to reinstall Vista all over again to activate It. If you try to activate Vista at this stage, it wont work. Now pop in the DVD. You know the drill | You can choose either in-place(as in step1) or custom(as in step2) | After Vista installs, you can now activate it.


B. If you download Vista Upgrade from windowsmarketplace.com like I did you wont be able to boot from DVD. Hence you cant reformat, delete or create partitions with the Vista Upgrade DVD you burnt


C. You can upgrade to Vista with a pirated OS or an un-activated OS because Microsoft says it doesnt check software eligibility

 

so from what im reading here the third option is the closest you can get to a clean install (delete everything....literally)?

 

So, is there any difference between using option #2 and deleting the old folder, and just doing option #3?

 

YES but #2 is not that bad either if you want to save yourself the time to install Vista 2wice.
Bonus: It retains your files. But you should still backup your files
The Bad: If you have malware or virus, it retains them in the folder Windows.old
Though I doubt 99% of the malware will affect Vista, Vista aint perfect either.

THERE'S NO DIFFERENCE except if your system is infected with malware.
You definitely dont want it to retain the malware

 

Why should someone choose not to input their product key the first time around? When I did the boot from CD for an XP upgrade it detected the win98 on the system, let me enter my product key, reformatted clean, installed XP, and then booted XP so I could activate it. Are you saying that the Vista boot thing is too stupid to see XP from the cd boot installer?

 

|Microsoft has made drastic changes to the upgrade process|

Microsoft no longer detects installed OS nor does it scan for upgrade eligibility
We can no longer pop in our original XP cd for verification neither can we input
an upgrade key if we boot from DVD.
Microsoft requires that we have an OS preinstalled. Thats why we also have to
firstly install Vista before upgrading with Vista again.

 

after we finish with option 2 we can delete the windows.old folder right? the result would be a clean installation?

 

OF COURSE you delete it. It only takes up precious space & YES it becomes a clean install